


An Evolution of Sorts

by Settiai



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, F/F, F/M, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Multi, One Shot, Spectre Requisitions, Threesome, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:12:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took Tali longer than it should have to recognize what was right in front of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Evolution of Sorts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [0rigo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/0rigo/gifts).



It took Tali longer than it should have to recognize what was right in front of her.

Oh, she wasn't completely naïve, no matter what any of the others might have thought. Tali was well aware that she was nursing a rather ridiculously large crush on Shepard and that she had been almost since the very beginning, when the woman had appeared out of nowhere with guns blazing to save her life. She had just never thought there was a chance that anything could come out of it, what with them being from completely different species.

It had become second nature to push any thoughts that weren't strictly platonic to the side. Whenever they bubbled up to the front of her mind, Tali roughly shoved them back. Shepard was her shipmate. Shepard was her friend. Shepard was her captain. After almost three years, it was all but automatic to push aside any thought of Shepard being anything more.

Especially once it became clear that the relationship between Garrus and Shepard was more than just friendship.

There was a part of her that regretted not saying anything. A little voice in the back of her mind that couldn't help but wonder if there would have been any chance of her being the one slipping in and out of Shepard's quarters at night, if only she hadn't been so hesitant. The excuses that she'd been making for years about Shepard not being interested in aliens were clearly wrong. What else had she been mistaken about?

Still, it was easy enough to ignore for the most part. Tali didn't think she'd ever seen Garrus and Shepard look so happy, and she'd be damned if she would do anything to jeopardize it. After everything they had been through, the two of them deserved a little happiness, no matter how fleeting. They were her shipmates, her friends, her _family_ , and Tali was willing to keep pretending she was perfectly content with it not being anything more than that. For both of their sakes.

And if she hadn't walked into the main battery of the _Normandy_ at just the right—or perhaps wrong, depending on the point of view—moment, nothing might have ever changed.

* * *

Tali's gaze was focused on her omni-tool when she walked through the door into the main battery, her attention almost completely on the power fluctuations that had been happening for the past hour. "Garrus, do you—"

She cut off abruptly as she looked up, only to see both Garrus and Shepard staring at her with startled looks on their faces. They were over in the small side area of the room where Garrus typically slept, his hands on Shepard's hips and Shepard's hands on a part of his anatomy that Tali had no business whatsoever in seeing. Tali was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that their surprised expressions were _all_ that they were wearing.

"Keelah!"

Tali spun around, turning her back on them to give them at least a little privacy. She was highly aware of the way that her heart had suddenly started pounding in her chest, her cheeks heating with an embarrassed blush that nobody could possibly see.

There was a high-pitched keening sound behind her with a definite embarrassed tinge to it that couldn't have come from anyone but Garrus, considering the multiple tones to it. It was Shepard who spoke, though, her voice surprisingly calm considering the situation. A bit more breathless than usual, maybe, but unruffled.

"Did you need something, Tali?" Shepard asked.

It was Tali's turn to make an embarrassed noise. "You couldn't have locked the door?"

Garrus let out another keening noise.

Shepard made a sound that Tali wasn't quite certain how to interpret, not without turning around to see the expression on Shepard's face. And there was no possible way that would be happening.

"Don't worry, you said," Garrus muttered under his breath, just loudly enough to make it clear that he wanted Tali to hear it. "It will be more exciting this way, you said. _Nobody_ will walk in, you said."

Shepard cleared her throat rather pointedly. "Not the time, Garrus," she said, just a hint of discomposure in her tone. "Tali, did you need—?" She trailed off as she clearly realized that she was asking the exact same thing she'd asked a moment or two earlier.

"Power fluctuations," Tali said, trying and failing to keep her voice even. "There were power fluc—actually, never mind. It's nothing that can't wait. I'll just—I should go, shouldn't I? I'll go."

Tali didn't wait for an answer as she all but sprinted out of the main battery, trying very pointedly to ignore any and all sounds coming from behind her.

* * *

The next few weeks were awkward, to say the least.

Try as she might, Tali couldn't get the image of Garrus and Shepard standing there in the shadows out of her mind. She'd seen holos of naked turians before, of course. As research. So that she'd have a better idea of what had been glossed over in _Fleet and Flotilla_. She'd just... never expected to see one in person.

Based on her limited experience, the quick glimpse she'd seen of Garrus had been rather impressive. Not that she had any intention of ever telling anyone that, including him, especially considering he'd barely been able to look at her since she'd fled the main battery that day.

As for Shepard, well, Tali had never actually sought out holos of humans before. Mostly because she'd been trying to ignore her ridiculous infatuation, not make it even stronger. Which made things even more complicated, if she was honest with herself. At least if she'd done research in the past, she wouldn't have so many questions now.

It was surprising just how _different_ Shepard looked without her uniform covering everything up. Considering the similarity in their clothed shapes, Tali had just assumed that humans were fairly alike to quarians underneath everything. She'd apparently been very mistaken in that assumption. That quick glimpse at the expanse of smooth skin normally kept hidden had been enough to send her curiosity spiraling, and it had taken quite a bit of effort on her part not to do any searches on the extranet that she might regret.

Mostly because Tali couldn't help but think that she might not regret it nearly as much as she should if she were to give in.

"This is ridiculous," Tali muttered under her breath, turning over on her cot so that she could stare at the ceiling above her.

The small room off the engine room that Tali used for sleeping was tiny, barely large enough to even cram a cot. She suspected it had originally been meant as a storage closet of some type. It had been empty when she came on board the _Normandy_ , though, so she had quickly claimed it as her own. Back then, it had made her feel better about being on a Cerberus ship, knowing that she could reach the engines in an instant if they tried to betray Shepard.

Oh, that wasn't the case now, of course. The _Normandy_ wasn't a Cerberus ship any longer and hadn't been for over a month. And no matter how much she had resisted at first, Tali could honestly say that she liked Daniels and Donnelly—and, more importantly, she trusted them. She wasn't worried that the ship might self-destruct if she didn't sleep so close to the engines.

She was just... used to it. It felt like home, in a way that Tali hadn't expected this new _Normandy_ to feel. It wasn't the same as with the original, not quite, but it was close.

Besides, the room small enough that Tali was absolutely certain she had disabled all of the surveillance tech. She was used to EDI now, and she even trusted the AI to some extent, but there was still something to be said about having at least a small bit of privacy.

The scene from the main battery flashed in her mind, the startled looks on Garrus's and Shepard's faces in that instant before Tali had turned her back on them. It was followed almost instantly by the familiar warmth of arousal deep inside her. And she knew from past experience that she would never get to sleep unless she did something about it.

Tali groaned in frustration.

Trying to push aside the vague stirrings of guilt, Tali activated her suit's nerve stim program. She let her mind drift as she ran her fingers down the front of her suit, twirling them over the sensitive areas to each side of her stomach. Her breathing hitched, just for a moment, and her suit's ventilation system immediately compensated.

If she closed her eyes, it would be easy to imagine that someone else was touching her. Another quarian. A turian. Maybe even a human.

"You're a bosh'tet," Tali muttered to herself.

Then she brought up her omni-tool and put in a search for human anatomy. It wasn't as if things could get _more_ awkward between her, Garrus, and Shepard.

* * *

It was almost amusing just how quickly everything fell apart in the aftermath of the destruction of the Bahak system. Or possibly horrifying. After spending so much time with Shepard, the two words seemed to have lost a lot of their meaning.

The _Normandy_ had lost several crew members in the two months since Shepard had broken with Cerberus. There had been a few, a very small few, who hadn't wanted to cut their ties with the organization despite everything; they had been left on the Citadel just as soon as the ship had been able to limp there. And there had been some who couldn't wait to put everything that had happened with the Collectors behind them as quickly as possible, who had chosen to leave at the same time.

Thane had stayed behind, wanting to spend as much time as possible with his son. Samara had left as well, her code not allowing her to linger once their mission was complete. Kasumi, on the other hand, had loudly announced her plans to stay behind, only to show up in the mess hall several hours after the _Normandy_ left the Citadel with a secretive smile and not a single explanation as to why she was still on board.

Admittedly, the very widespread news reports that broke shortly afterwards about a high profile robbery involving an ambassador, an illegal AI, and two krogan searching for fish of all things was rather telling on its own.

Still, most of the crew had stayed with the ship, with Shepard, despite the fact that their mission was technically over. Tali suspected she wasn't the only one who had stayed longer than she should have, but it was easier than it should have been to keep making excuses. Oh, she would have had to return to the flotilla eventually of course, but she would have at least put it off for a few more months.

And then everything collapsed in one huge, fiery explosion that took an entire system with it. 

* * *

"Shepard, I should—"

"No," Shepard said firmly, cutting Garrus off before he could protest for the fourth time in as many minutes that he should stay on the _Normandy_ with her. "Joker and I are the only ones who are going to be on this ship when we make the jump to Earth, and the only reason it's not just me is because my pilot is a stubborn ass who doesn't understand how the chain of command works."

Garrus shook his head. "Shepard—"

"I said 'no', Garrus," Shepard snapped.

Then she shot Tali a pleading look over Garrus's shoulder, even as he opened his mouth to start arguing again. One that went straight through all of Tali's defenses and buried itself right in her heart.

Tali took a deep breath, the slight waver in Shepard's voice from their conversation in the engine room a few hours earlier echoing in her mind.

_// "Tali, will you do something for me?"_

_"Of course, Shepard," Tali said, tilting her head. "Anything."_

_An expression that Tali wasn't quite certain how to read flashed across Shepard's face. "Just like that?" she asked. "No hesitation whatsoever?"_

_Tali shrugged. "Why would I hesitate?" she asked, the question completely rhetorical on her part at least. She trusted Shepard with her life, after all._

_Shepard opened her mouth. Then she closed it and took a deep breath, as if she had been about to say something and changed her mind. That same unreadable spark that Tali had noticed earlier flashed in her eyes for just a moment before it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared._

_"Shepard?" Tali asked slowly._

_"Will you keep an eye on Garrus for me?" Shepard asked, the words coming out in a rush._

_Tali wasn't certain what she had been expecting Shepard to ask, but she knew that wasn't it. "I—" She quickly shook her head. "Of course. I'll do my best, at least." Then she hesitated. "But Shepard, I do need to return to my people at some point."_

_The corner of Shepard's mouth turned up in a smile. "I know," she said, "and I'm not asking you to stay with him forever. Just for a few days." She hesitated for a moment. "Would it be horrible of me to say that I don't trust him not to do something stupid if things don't go well for me back on Earth?"_

_It took everything that Tali had to hide just how much the thought of things not going well for Shepard affected her. Her face was hidden, of course, but she'd been told many times before that her body language gave things away. And the last thing she wanted to do was give Shepard anything else to worry about. But, oh, just the thought of it was enough to send a chill straight through her._

_She must have done a good job at hiding her reaction, because Shepard apparently took her silence as confusion rather than fear._

_"I don't know what's waiting for me back on Earth," Shepard said, her voice shaking just slightly. "If I don't—" She cut herself off, taking a deep breath. "It will make me feel better, knowing he's got someone out there watching his back if I'm not there to do it."_

_Tali reached out and took Shepard's hands before she quite realized what she was doing. "Of course I'll stay with him, Shepard." She squeezed, just slightly. "I already said 'anything', didn't I?"_

_Shepard's gaze flicked downward for a moment, her eyes clearly focusing on their joined hands. Then she looked up again, meeting Tali's gaze as straight on as she could through the mask. "Thank you, Tali," she said quietly. "You... you're a good friend. Better than I deserve." //_

And now Shepard was staring at her with that damn pleading look on her face as Garrus's voice got louder and louder, still arguing that Shepard shouldn't face the Alliance by herself.

Tali took a deep breath, even though it didn't make much of a difference considering the way the ventilation system in her suit worked. Then she started forward, already preparing her own arguments in her mind.

She'd made a promise, after all.

* * *

Garrus still avoided meeting her gaze.

Tali rolled her eyes even though she knew he couldn't see it. Then, more out of spite than anything else, she dropped down right beside him on the couch in the hotel room they had been sharing for the past three days.

He flinched, his arm jerking away as if he was afraid the touch of her suit would burn him.

It was the last straw.

She understood that he was embarrassed that she had walked in on him and Shepard at an inopportune moment, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why he was reacting so badly to it for so long. Tali was well aware that all turians served in the military when they were young, and if life on the flotilla had taught her anything it was that living in close quarters meant privacy was one of the first things you learned to push to the side. Accidents happened, and you either learned to live with them or you embraced a life of celibacy.

And Garrus clearly hadn't gone with the latter.

"Enough is enough, Garrus!" Tali snapped, a bit more angrily than she had intended. There hadn't been any news on Shepard since they had parted ways, though, and the worry gnawing away at her was enough to push her frustration to the next level.

Garrus hesitated for a long moment before finally turning towards her, looking her in the face for the first time in over a month. There was a wary look in his eyes, as if he wasn't certain what to expect.

Tali couldn't blame him. She wasn't entirely certain what to expect either, and she was the one who had started the conversation in the first place.

She took a few steadying breaths, trying to calm herself before she said something that she'd regret. "Are you angry with me?"

Garrus blinked. "Of course not," he said, sounding more confused than anything else. "Why would I be angry with you?"

Tali ignored his question. "Are you scared of me?"

"Is this a trick question?" he asked slowly. "Do you have a shotgun on you? If you're hiding a shotgun somewhere, then the answer is 'yes.'"

She felt a smile threatening to tug at the corners of her mouth, and she quickly did her best to push it to the side. A little of her anger and frustration faded away, though. Not all of it, but some.

"Garrus," she said, and despite her best intentions she knew that he could probably hear the smile in her voice.

Garrus made a soft humming sound that she'd learned a long time ago was similar to a chuckle for turians. "No, I'm not scared of you."

Tali angled her head toward him. "So you're not angry with me," she said slowly, "and you're not scared of me. Yet you've been ignoring me for weeks."

Beside her, Garrus stilled.

"Are you still embarrassed about me walking in on you and Shepard?" she asked matter-of-factly.

"Tali—"

"Because, from the little bit that I saw, you have _nothing_ to be embarrassed about."

That... hadn't been what Tali had meant to say. She wasn't entirely certain what she had been going to say, but she knew that it hadn't been that. The words had come out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Garrus brought his hand up to hide his face. It was a very human mannerism, something that Tali had seen Shepard do a thousand times before.

"Sorry," Tali said, grimacing a little. "I didn't mean to word it quite like that."

Beside her, Garrus didn't say anything.

"Turian ships can't be that different from quarian ones, can they?" she asked, softening her tone a little. "Was this really the first time you've—" She hesitated for a moment, trying to think of the best way to word her question. "—been interrupted?"

"Of course not," Garrus muttered, his hand still over his face.

And just like that, her irritation was back in full force. "Then why are you acting like this?"

There was a long pause, and Tali almost thought that Garrus wasn't going to reply. Then he dropped his hand so that he could meet her gaze again.

"Because this was the first time I enjoyed it!" he shot back at her.

Tali gaped at him. Even with her face covered, she suspected it was quite obvious. "What?" she finally managed to ask, her voice somewhat strangled.

Garrus opened his mouth. Then he closed it. He was practically radiating embarrassment, and if Tali's brain hadn't ground to a halt a moment or two earlier she might have been amused by just how discomfited he was. As it was, she barely noticed.

Without saying another word, he stood up and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. The door whirred shut behind him.

Tali sat there, staring at the closed door. "What?" she repeated to the empty room.

* * *

Garrus didn't say anything as he sat down beside Tali.

She wasn't entirely certain how much time had passed. It might have been a few minutes. It might have been hours.

"I'm sorry," Garrus said quietly. Almost hesitantly, actually, as if he wasn't quite certain how Tali was going to react.

Not that she could blame him. If she was honest with herself, Tali wasn't sure _how_ to react. "You don't have anything to be sorry about," she said after a moment's pause.

Garrus chuckled, but there wasn't any humor in it. "Tali," he said, "I've thought about you walking in on us. Several times." He paused for a moment. Then, as if he wasn't certain she understood what he was saying, he added: "At very inappropriate times."

Tali shifted uncomfortably. "You too?"

It was almost funny watching his jaw drop so quickly. If things hadn't been so uncomfortable between the two of them, Tali might have laughed. As it was, she merely gave him a half-hearted shrug as he gaped at her.

"Oh," he finally managed to say.

"Yes," Tali agreed, nodding. "Oh."

"You mean you—" He trailed off, the expression on his face carefully blank.

She nodded again.

Without warning, Garrus started to laugh. Tali stared blankly at him for a moment before starting to chuckle herself.

"We're a pair of bosh'tets, aren't we?" Tali asked, shaking her head. She felt lighter than she had in weeks, despite the worry for Shepard that was still pressing at the back of her mind.

"We really are," Garrus said dryly as his laughter tapered off. Then, without warning, he let out a sigh.

Tali tilted her head at him.

He hesitated for a moment. "I'm still in love with Shepard," he said, almost apologetically. As if he'd actually thought for a moment that Tali might have thought otherwise.

She didn't laugh. It took a lot of effort, but she resisted the urge.

Tali reached out and took his hand in hers. Another one of Shepard's mannerisms, she realized, one that she had apparently picked up without even noticing.

Then she leaned forward, so that her head was resting against his arm. "So am I."

Beside her, Garrus's breath caught.

* * *

It was odd, being back on the _Normandy_ after almost a year away. Everything had changed, yet at the same time it was as if almost nothing had changed.

Tali hesitated outside of the door to Shepard's quarters. She knew that Shepard was waiting for her, that the other woman wanted to catch up with a friend that she hadn't seen in months, and that it would be the best for everyone if she pushed aside any and all of those pesky emotions that she'd embraced a bit more wholeheartedly than she should have since she'd returned to the flotilla. It was harder than it had been, though, trying to pretend that nothing had changed.

Especially since she _knew_ that Garrus had been on the ship for months and had no idea whatsoever what he might have told Shepard.

It had been almost a relief, back in that tiny hotel room, to say the words that she'd kept buried for so long. They had stayed there for almost two weeks, waiting for Liara to get in touch with them with news about Shepard. Nothing had changed, yet everything had changed, and for those long days of waiting it had been as if there was no one in the universe except for her, Garrus, and Shepard.

Then the news had come, and Garrus had been off to Palaven and Tali back to the Migrant Fleet. There had been a few messages between them at first, but they had quickly dwindled and then stopped altogether as more pressing concerns took up their time.

Tali closed her eyes for a moment, steadying herself. Then she opened them again and reached for the door, not surprised when it opened at her touch. Unlocked. Of course it was unlocked.

Shepard was standing just inside the room when Tali stopped in the doorway, her carefully schooled expression from earlier gone. Instead she was wearing a familiar smile, wide and open… and just a tiny bit hesitant, which was something Tali wasn't used to seeing on Shepard's face.

Garrus was standing beside her, his hand resting on her arm.

Tali froze, her gaze drifting between the two of them. "Shepard?" she asked slowly. "Garrus?"

"Come on in, Tali," Shepard said. While the smile she was wearing was still timid, Tali couldn't help but think that it was also a little hopeful. "I think we should talk."

Tali looked past Shepard to meet Garrus's gaze. He nodded at her, and there was something in his eyes that made her mind immediately flash back to those two long weeks in the aftermath of Bahak.

She tentatively took a few steps forward, stepping into the room. To join Shepard and Garrus.

And the door closed behind her.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
